Patients under 60 years of age with intermediate or high risk breast cancer, whose tumors show evidence of HRD and do not contain a HER2/neu amplification are eligible. All patients will receive 3 courses of standard preoperative chemotherapy with dose-dense Doxorubicin and Cyclophosphamide (ddAC). Patients with a favorable response according to repeat MRI, will be randomized to undergo either a further 3 courses of ddAC prior to local therapy and endocrine adjuvant therapy (standard arm) or 1 course of ddAC followed by peripheral blood progenitor cell (PBPC) harvest and 2 courses of IAA with Cyclophosphamide (3 g/m2), thiotepa (240 mg/m2) and carboplatin (800 mg/m2) (experimental arm). IAA is administered during a 1 or 2-night hospital stay, the bone marrow aplasia phase is managed on an out-patient basis and the second course will be started on day 22 of the first one. Patients who do not achieve a favorable response as determined by their MRI after 3 cycles of ddAC will be offered treatment according to the experimental arm as salvage therapy.